Angular orientation of labels by a label applier is well known. Typically, the machine operator must physically reset the mechanism by hand for each change in label orientation. While that is satisfactory for long package runs where labels are identically positioned on numerous packages, this presents a productivity problem in instances where two, three or a half-dozen packages of one product are run successively at high speed, followed by a similar amount of packages of another product which need a different label orientation.
In the supermarket industry, for example, automatic film wrapping machines handle successive packages of meat or produce in different size packages and of different product. Present day machines of this type are capable of wrapping at fairly high speed, on the order of 32 packages per minute. Obviously, if an automatic weighing and labeling operation is connected to the wrapping machine at its exit end, and if the labels must be changed in their physical orientation relative to the package because of the way the packages are to be displayed in a meat case, for example, any requirement to make manual changes to reset the label applier would nullify the advantage of using a high speed wrapping machine.
An example of a label applier which requires manual changes to effect label reorientation is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,787,953 and 4,895,614 issued to myself and Treiber. When used in conjunction with equipment where productivity and speed are either not essential or are of only nominal importance, the label applier of those patents is quite acceptable. It is also quite suitable when used with high speed equipment where the frequency of change of orientation is occasional, rather than regularly occurring. However, it would be clearly unacceptable and would defeat the very purpose of a high speed stretch wrapping machine if a label applier was the last unit in a complete system and the need to change label orientation was frequent.
One solution to this problem is to reorient the printing itself, (as distinguished from physically turning the label), as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,121 issued to Markley et al. While the system of Markley is quite acceptable for changing product names on merchandising labels, its suitability for use with pricing labels is questionable. A merchandising label needs only the product name itself, and thus, the memory required is for the given limited number of meat products run in a particular store, multiplied by the possible number of different angular orientations for each product. In contrast, a pricing label typically requires not only the product name, but also an indication of the weight, the price per pound, the total value of the package, and in modern supermarkets, a bar code for use in product identification at the check-out counter and a "sell by" date. Even if it were possible to utilize the Markley concept for pricing labels, it would likely find nominal use in supermarkets. Many stores use preprinted labels with their store name and category information located in predetermined positions on the labels. Were the print orientation of Markley used with such preprinted pricing labels, three of the four possible angular label positions would have the store name and category information readable from a different angle than the weight, price and total information. In one instance, the store name and category information would be upside down from the data printed for that particular package, and in the other two, it would be at right angles to the product data. Depending on the locations where the data was to have been placed if upright in relation to the preprinted information, the data might be printed directly over the store name if the label were inverted 180 degrees. It is believed unlikely that a store would be willing to accept the "Markley" print orientation for pricing labels, because of the incompatibility of the preprinted label information with the printed data except for one particular label angle.